News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-17
THE VANISHING LADY.
Exposure ofthe Clever Tricks Now Being
PcrfOrmed by COniurers.

One of Hermann's tricks which mys-
tit1es his audience is that of the vanish
ing lady" I he vanishing lady is the
wonder of the town. She was invented
by Dautier de Kalta, a Paris coniurer,
and she has been performing at the Eden
Theatre, there. She is also puZzling the
public in London and Berlin. The Sc
cret of her illusion has been kept in
those cities, and scientists have written
theories about her as learned and con-
jeCtural as those which Poe devoted to
the chess automatOn. The inventor has
an agent in Sew York to sell her At 800
per copy. He has made dozen sales.
Every purchaser is astonished by the
simplicity of the trick he has acquired,
and puzzled anew to command the nat
lrui skill to utihze it. DeAteroEsiy
performed, the trick is like this The
necromancer appears in full dress. A
pretty girl accompanies him. He talks
to her pleasantly while he moves about
the stage, and presently he picks up
chair. With seeming carelessness he
places it about the middle of the stage,
on an open newspaper. The girl seats
herself, assuming the ordinary, womanIy
restful position. From the table he takes
a large piece of fOuIard silk, fabric not
transparent, but sufficiently soft to show
the form of the girl after it has COM
pletely enyeloped her and the chair, still
talking, he in an instant lifts the veil
The girl is not there. The chair is left
exactly as it stood before she sat in it;
the newspaper is beneath it precisely as
it was placed. No sounds have been
heard in the meantime there is no dark
ening of the stage, even the silk cover
ing has shown no shrinkage, but pre-
served its form up to the moment it was
lifted by the fakir.
How was it done? Very simply. Every
body correctly guesses that a trap is
used, but the investigator stops there
defeated. The chair, the newspaper, the
trap, the confederate below the stage,
and bright, slim girl are the things
that are used. The chair is not, as it
looks, an ordinary article. It is of the
heavy, old fashioned. mahogany kind,
without rounds, thickly upholstered on
the seat, with an open back. 1t is so
built that by touching a concealed spring
the seat is made to drop down from the
rear on hinge, leaving the girl free to
sink down the trap, which is manipulate
ed by the confederate below the stage.
There being no rungs on the chair, the
girl has an easy job. VIII n the illu-
sionist has seated her he throws over
her head the silk veil. At the moment
she feels herself covered she works
another spring which causes q thin wire
framework to rise up from the back of
the chair and spread itself about her
form, thus preserving undisturbed the
outlines of the cloth and deceiving the
audience into the belief that she is still
seated. The mystery Of the open news
paper spread under the chair to kill any
suggestion of a trap, is even simpler.
The paper has b en- deity cut, so as to
contain trap opening in itself 1t is so
handled by the operator as not to reveal
the slit, and when he gathers it up after
the trick he Is careful to fold it-partly
at least. His own y OrN consists first in
fnregdin~ the newspaper so shat the trap
cut 1t in shall cover exactly the trap IN
the stage and, second, in setting the
chair precisely over both traps. He
ought to be clever in talking, to divert
the spectators attention from both news
paper and chair, and the more he speaks
of the absence of trap the better he
can puzzle those who are watching him.
Of course he cannot submit either the
chair or newspaper to inspection. The
trap used in the stage is the ordinary
demons drop, of good size. After the
g RI has passed through, the confederate
below the stage puts his hand up and
springs to it place the hinged seat in
the chair. Then ne raps, and the illu-
sionist above knows all is ready for him |
to pull the veil away. Added mystery
is gained by making the girl run out |
into the auditorium as soon as she can.
A neat sleight-of hand man can also
cause the veil itself to disappear up his
sleeve after he has lifted it.-ODaaIa |
Herald